Play SkiFree, WinTrek, and other classic Windows games right in your browser

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When it comes to retro gaming, it’s usually classic arcade or console titles that get the attention. Archive.org wants to make sure you don’t forget that there are some awesome PC classics out there, too.

Just take a look at all the excellent titles they’re sharing as part of their latest exhibit, the Windows 3.x Showcase. A personal favorite of mine is Chris Pirih’s legendary SkiFree, which my friends and I spent a great deal of time playing on school lab computers in the early ’90s when we should’ve been doing actual work.

Other “exhibits” in the showcase include WinTrek, which was an updated version of a Trek-inspired game written for the Apple IIGS (which itself was inspired by another game written in the ’70s that ran on mainframes).

Politically-inclined gamers can relive the glory of H Ross Perot’s presidential run in Election ’92. You can also play a of Wheel Of Fortune, complete with a fully-animated Vanna White for realistic tile-turning action. If word puzzles aren’t your thing, there’s the Breakout/Arkanoid-inspired Brickbuster, KomodoWare’s Zombie Castle (starring Count Sukula), and Ms. Chomp which, as you probably already guessed, is a Ms. Pac-Man clone.

The Showcase doesn’t just feature games. There are a handful of apps on display, too, including an ASCII chart, a benchmarking tool, and a financial calculator. You can even boot up a vanilla Windows 3.1 OS install right in your browser or take the Windows 95 demo for a test drive.

Like the Malware Museum that just opened, the Windows 3.x showcase runs on Archive.org’s browser-based DOSBox emulator. Click the power button and it springs into action, loading up Windows 3.1 and then automatically running your game or app of choice.